changes to migrate forward to the future—to our time and beyond.”
“Yet the Russians were clearly aware of events about to unfold in this war—at least to some extent.”
“It is that certainty that is fading now,” said Dorland. “Nothing can be relied on in the history at this moment, particularly now, for we have entered what I call a kind of zone of chaos after the 28th of July. You are aware of the significance of this date?”
“I was told it was the date the Russians first arrived here. That was on Wake Walker’s beat, but I know this only because of a few very odd file boxes where I seem to have written up reports on the entire affair. They were found at Bletchley Park by our Mister Turing. I hoped he could be here for this meeting, but the plane is running late. Might you have any explanation?”
“Let me try,” said Paul. “Whenever something moves in time, it opens a temporary hole in the continuum, or to put it another way, it creates a little whirlpool in the stream and slips through. Sometimes other things can be dragged along with it, particularly things related to events it may have altered during its time in the past. As we have seen, those events can cause serious harm to the continuum of future events. So these little things can be very dangerous, like contaminates or waste byproducts from the intervention. The easiest way to think of it would be to imagine Mother Time trying to sweep up bits of broken China on her kitchen floor. Sometimes she can be very meticulous. Other times things can happen in a haphazard or random way, particularly in a Chaos Zone. That refers to intervals of instability that accompany objects and persons moving through time. And when we get an entire battlecruiser, with a crew of over 700 men doing that movement, the disturbance can be quite significant.”
Tovey was able to follow the logic of that easily enough. “According to the reports from my own hand, I didn’t personally encounter the Russian ship until August 4th, cruising south of Iceland. Are you saying that one of these chaos zones has formed around that date—the 28th of July? The young Russian Captain was particularly concerned about that day. He kept referring to it as a Paradox.”
“And rightly so,” said Dorland. “Well… It has just occurred, and because the Russian movements in time also took their ship as far back as 1908, changes that took place at that time have been migrating forward, and they have obviously reached the 1940s. This world seems quite different, a completely different history in many ways, though still very familiar to the history we knew in other aspects.”
“Yes,” said Tovey. “Now that you mention that, I believe my last statement was in error. I think I first set eyes on that Russian ship as a very young man, a Lieutenant serving aboard the armored cruiser King Alfred out of the China Station. We were involved in that big battle—the Second Battle of the Tushima Straits, and I’m certain it was the Russian ship we faced there—until it vanished, just as it did a few months ago while steaming some 500 meters off the very bow of this ship!”
“In fact,” said Dorland, “that was an alteration of your own personal timeline, or meridian as I use the term. You were never supposed to have seen that ship, and there was no such battle ever recorded in the history I know. These things all happened as a consequence of Kirov’s intervention in time. We only just perceived these variation flags in our research systems, and we have seen the changes occurring that far back, to 1908. Now changes from that day are reaching this time, though they have not yet reached my time in 2021. Think of these changes as moving in waves, like a tsunami, and they have finally reached this shore of 1941. Yet that date—July 28th—did indeed present a Paradox. The Russian ship was here, approaching it from the past, yet it was the date of its first appearance, so that would create quite a problem. Too many cooks spoil the broth. You say Kirov vanished in May, and there has been no further sign of it since that time?”
“Not a whisper on the radio sets they left with me.”
“I beg your pardon… Radio sets?”
“Yes, they brought over some of their equipment to facilitate secure communications. I believe Miss Fairchild